psych exam #3 term flashcards

Accommodation: Process which new scheme is created or existing scheme is altered

Adolescent Growth Spurt: Rapid hormonal increase in height/weight

Alzheimer’s Disease: Loss of all mental capacities

Assimilation: Process by which new information is placed into an existing scheme

Attachment: Strong, intimate, emotional connection between people

Cisgender: Conform to assigned sex

Concrete Operational Stage: Children begging to understand logical operations

Conventional Level: Middle stage of moral development where rules are most important

Crystallized Intelligence: Specific knowledge requiring learning and increases in old age

Dementia: Progressive deterioration of thought, memory and behavior

Developmental Psychology: Study of changes over lifespan

Dynamic Systems Theory: Development is self-organizing due to interactions with environment

Egocentric Processing: Can’t take other perspectives besides own until later in preoperational stage

Embryo: Developing human (organs and systems)

False Belief Tasks: Child must take perspective of other to answer questions based on what other person knows

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Physical/mental deficiency caused by alcohol during pregnancy

Fetus: Growing infant

Fluid Intelligence: Ability to process new information and decreases in old age

Formal Operational Stage: Final stage of Piaget’s theory with abstract/critical thinking

Gender Expression: How gender is shown

Gender Identity: Sense of being male, female or nonbinary

Gender Role: Behavior typically associated with male or female

Grasping Reflex: Babies grab things that touch their open hand

Habituation Technique: How infants categorize objects based on how long they look at them

Imprinting: Species follow an adult shortly after birth

Individual Principles: Certain principles are above law

Inequity Aversion: Preference to avoid unfairness

Infantile Amnesia: Inability to remember early childhood

Intersexuality: Inconsistent aspects of sex

Moral Reasoning: Depends on cognitive processes

Moral Emotions: Depends on societal interest / motivation

Object Permanence: An object exists even when not seen

Postconventional Level: Highest stage of moral development where morals are based on well-thought values

Preconventional Level: Earliest stage of moral development where morals are based on self interest

Preferential-Looking Technique: Infant is shown two things, if it looks longer at something then it can distinguish between the two

Preoperational Stage: Second stage of Piaget’s theory where children understands objects but can’t reason why they think a certain way

Primary Sex Characteristics: Maturation of genitals and genitals processes

Puberty: Beginning of adolescence marked by sexual maturity

Rooting Reflex: Turning/sucking when a nipple touches mouth

Salient Stimuli: Attention grabbing stimulus

Schemes: Ways of thinking based on experience

Secondary Sex Characteristics: Body hair, muscle, voice, etc

Sensorimotor Stage: First stage of Piaget’s theory where perception is based on motor skills and reflexes

Sexual Orientation: Who you are attracted to

Social Contract: Rules serving the majority

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: As people grow older they focus on emotional meaning

Strange-Situation Test: Adult leaves then comes back in 3 stages

Sucking Reflex: Sucking object touching mouth

Synaptic Production: Early brain development where a higher rate of synapses are created in response to experiences

Synaptic Pruning: Preservation of synaptic connections that are used and elimination of unused

Teratogens: Agents that harm embryo/fetus

Theory of Mind: Ability to understand other perspectives

Transgender: Conform to other sex

Translational Neuroscience: Seeks to identify neural system,s that are vulnerable to early life stress

Visual Acuity: Distinguish differences in shapes, patterns and colors

Zygote: Sperm + Egg creates first cell of new life

Affect: Physiological response, behavior response, and feeling based on interpretation of situation/bodily state

Approach Motivation: Seek out things associated with pleasure

Avoidance Motivation: Avoid things associated with negative outcomes

Balance Theory: People are motivated to achieve harmony in their interpersonal relationships

Basal Metabolic Rate: Minimal amount of energy used during rest

Cannon-Bard Theory: Information is sent simultaneously to cortex and body resulting in two separate reactions

Cognitive Dissonance: Unpleasant feeling of holding two conflicting beliefs

Core Values: Strongly held, enduring beliefs that promote emotion when threatened

Display Rules: Rules learned through socialization that dictate suitable emotions for specific situations

Drive: State created by arousal that motivates to satisfy a need

Emotion: Immediate, negative or positive response to external/internal environment

Extrinsic Motivation: Motivation to perform based on external goal

Feeling: Subjective experience of emotion

Ghrelin: Signals hunger

Grit: Deep passion for goals despite setbacks

Habit: Behavior that consistently reduces drive

Hedonism: Desire for pleasantness and avoidance of unpleasantness

Homeostasis: Body tries to maintain equilibrium

Homeostatic Set Point: Constant weight with no effort

Ideal Affect: Emotional states people desire to feel

Incentives: External things that motivate behavior

Insulin: Causes excess sugar to store as fat/carbohydrates

Intrinsic Motivation: Motivation to perform based on internal pleasure

James-Lange Theory: We perceive bodily responses to feel emotion

Lateral Hypothalamus: Stimulates eating

Leptin: Signals satiety

Misattribution of Arousal: When the situation that caused the bodily change is misinterpreted and changes how emotions are felt

Mood: Long lasting emotional states with no trigger

Motivation: A process that energizes, guides, and maintains behavior towards a goal

Need: State of deficiency

Need Hierarchy: Arrangement of needs in order of how much it relates to survival

Need to Belong: Need for interpersonal attachment

Negative-Feedback Loop: Feedback decreases activity

Pleasure Principle: Encouragement to seek pleasure and avoid pain

Primary Emotions: Innate, adaptive and universal emotions

Reappraising: Changing thinking about an emotional reaction by describing it in more neutral terms

Rebound Effect: Thinking more about what you are trying not to

Rumination: Elaboration on undesired thoughts.feeling and creates a cycle

Secondary Emotions: Blends of primary emotions

Self-Actualization: State that is achieved when one’s personal dreams have been attained

Self-Affirmation: A need for a sense of self that is stable

Social Comparison Theory: We compare ourselves to those around us to validate personal behavior

Self-Determination Theory: People are motivated to satisfy needs for competence

Self-Distancing: Taking a different perspective to reduce emotion

Self-Efficacy: Belief that effort will result in success

Self-Regulation: Process by which people direct their behavior towards goals

Suppression: Attempt to not respond at all to an emotional stimulus

Two-Factor Theory: Label applied to physiological arousal results in experience of emotions

Undifferentiated Physiological Arousal: Bodily response to all emotions is the same and the situation determines how the response it perceived through emotion

Ventromedial Hypothalamus: Restricts eating

Yerkes-Dodson Law: Psychological principle that performance increased with arousal to a certain point

Activity Level: Overall amount of energy a person spends

Behavioral Approach System (BAS): Brain system involved in pursuit of incentives

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS): Brain system involved in monitoring for threats and slowing behavior

Better-Than-Average Effect: People describe themselves as better than average in almost everything

Central Traits: Characteristics important to how one defines themselves

Emotionality: Intensity of emotional reactions

Emotional Stability: Consistency of moods/emotions

Faith in Humanity: Believing in the goodness in each person

Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS): Brain system involved in freezing, fleeing or fighting in response to punishment

Five-Factor Theory: Personality can be described with five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Humanism: Valuing worth of every person

Humanistic Approaches: Approach to personality based on how people follow goals to improve self-understanding

Idiographic Approaches: Approach to personality based on individual lives and characteristics

Interactionism: Behavior is determined jointly by situations and personality

Kantianism: Honest with others and against manipulation

Locus of Control: Personal belief of how much control a person has over their life

Machiavellianism: Manipulation of others for personal gain

Mean-Order: Development of traits throughout life

Narcissism: Too inflated self-esteem

Need for Cognition: Tendency to seek thinking / critical thinking

Nomothetic Approaches: Approaches to personality based on variation of common characteristics

Personality: Person’s characteristics, thoughts, emotional responses and behavior

Personality Trait: Pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that is consistent

Person-Centered Approach: Emphasis on subjective understanding of life

Person Factors: Characteristics, confidence and expectations

Positive Illusions: Overly favorable and unrealistic beliefs that most people hold

Projective Measures: Personality tests that examine tendencies to respond in a certain way

Psychopathy: Lack of caring for others and only care for own goals

Psychoticism: Mix of aggression, self-centeredness, and lack of empathy

Rank-Order: Main traits that remain stable

Reciprocal Determinism: Expression of personality can be explained by the interaction of environment, person factors, and behavior itself

Reflected Appraisal: Theory that we derive our self-esteem from others perception of us

Secondary Traits: Less descriptive characteristics of someone

Self-Actualization: Personal growth through understanding self

Self-Esteem: Self-concept of worth

Self-Schema: Knowledge structure that contains memories of self that helps us perceive information related to self better

Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to credit selves for success but credit external factors for failure

Situationism: Theory that behavior is more determined by situations than personality

Social Comparison: Evaluating own behavior by comparing with others

Sociability: General tendency to socialize

Sociometer: Internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection

Strong Situations: Tense, serious situations that mask personality

Temperaments: Biological tendencies to behave certain ways

Trait Approaches: Approach to personality based on difference in personality dispositions

Weak Situations: Fun, freeing situations that bring out personality